[COMPLETED] 🔍4th Scam Spotting Challenge: Tech Support Edition🔍

Firmy

Our 4th Scam Spotting Challenge is here, focusing on Tech Support Scams 🖥️ Scammers often try to trick people with fake tech support messages, asking for personal information or trying to install harmful software. This challenge will help you learn how to spot these tricks.

Challenge Details:

📅 Ends: December 4th, 08:00 GMT
💬 How to Join: Look at the tech support scam examples provided and comment below on how you spotted the clues. Share the details in your own words—it’s best to use your personal observations for a true response.

Rewards:

🎖️ Badges for all who participate!
🏆 Top Answer: The best response will win a special prize from F-Secure!

Whether you’re a pro or just learning, this challenge is a great chance to boost your scam-spotting skills and help others in our community. Every entry helps us all learn more about tech support scams.

Ready to join? Drop your answer in the comments and help fight tech support scams!

code2020

Firstly, Microsoft would never give out their phone number. The number quoted in the dodgey advert has inconsistent numericals. Never click in any links within such ill convincing emails. Forward to f-secure & delete afterwards.

Candi1

I see a High-Pressure message trying to scare you in to taking action right away, so you don't think. Try to stay calm & do not take immediate action. Take your time & think about this message(if you think its real or not). The phone number 123-4567 is very suspicious. Though it tells you to call Microsoft, it doesn't say who this message is from, VERY suspicious! I would look up the Microsoft phone number from a reputable site before calling(if I really thought I should call them). Never just assume a phone number in a message like this is a correct phone number, especially from a high-pressure message such as this. I have a good virus protection program that would alert me if I had a virus. This message is NOT from my virus protection program! But, I would go to my virus protection program & run a scan. If the scan comes back clean, that will let me know that message is probably a scam. If I am still worried something might be wrong with my computer, I would look up the Microsoft phone number & call the real phone number(not the phone number in the message). If you call the number in the message they are probably going to try & get your personal credit card information by saying they are charging a fee to "clean your computer". They might even want you to give them "remote control" of your computer to supposedly get rid of the supposed "virus" when they'd actually install a virus that could take all your private information from your computer.

martink

In addition to the fishy phone number there is no company logo no details of the company as opposed to if you go to Outlook.com etc.
Just wondering again, how would they have known if I am in an LAN which guarded by Sense or similar, using tracking protection and private or Thor browser.

Should I take it for real I, too, would look at what my malware protection has to say about it and then run a malware scan from another reputable company .plus Shields up.

Frankhe

Ehm, did I subscribe to this topic?

I still get a lot of e-mails from this forum of things where I am pretty sure I did not subscribe to. Can you please look into this?

martink

Though there is a company which sent me this

Havaitsimme kirjautumisyrityksen uudesta laitteesta

Hei M*******! Olemme havainneet kirjautumisyrityksen tilillesi F-Secure ja haluamme varmistaa, että se olit sinä.

Laite: Windows 10 Chrome 131 Sijainti: Tuntematon sijainti

Jos se olit sinä ja tunnistat tämän laitteen, sinun ei tarvitse tehdä mitään. Olemme merkinneet tämän laitteen luotetuksi laitteeksi. Et saa tätä ilmoitusta enää.

Jos se et ollut sinä, vaihda salasanasi heti. Tämä en ollut minä

Parhain terveisin, F-Secure

No company details nor phone number but a link. On the other hand there is a connection to my recent login to the company site.
They seem to know who I am and my system, but not where I am.
Secondly it was not on a new device, but a VM which seems to count as a new device after every restart.

NVDA

Assume the phone number 1 (800)123-4567 is just an example number and would adapt to any region with its related number for Microsoft.

A trick this scammer uses is to pretend to be Microsoft rather than some other 3rd party company. If this notification belongs to some software the user didn't install, it's very easy to identify.

First I would check if the number matches my local Microsoft support hotline number.

If not, a scam for sure. If it matches, I don't mind having a short chat with Microsoft support guys. But, hey, if that's Microsoft's notification, it doesn't normally look like this, red letters and huge WARNING, too suspicious. Recall the notifications/pop-ups from Microsoft asking you to upgrade to Win 11 from Win 10 for example? But anyway, the Microsoft support team could identify this as well.

So conclusion: I judge from 1. The company it claims to belong to. 2. The phone number it uses (verification, could have a call if it's official Microsoft) 3. The appearance of the notification doesn't look like any legitimate software pop-ups.

Ukko

Hello,

Our 3rd Scam Spotting Challenge is here, focusing on Tech Support Scams

It is 4th already. :)

Anyway…

When I saw the example given (screenshot), I almost choked. So this is trying SO hard to get attention it's shocking. Nevertheless, Tech Support Scams are a rather difficult thing if done by experienced scammers or some kind of established scheme, since almost the only protection will be the user's knowledge of such things, active alerts about similar threats from the services used, as well as excessive persistence or intrusiveness of the scammer are usually the clues.

About this one

Spoiler Warning

This form is too intimidating, too alarming and, moreover, in general contains some kind of nonsense (which for those who know will be obvious; for those who do not know, it will look completely incomprehensible). Therefore, an experienced user will most likely immediately suspect something is wrong for a number of reasons, while an inexperienced user will most often go for advice from a trusted source. The rest will most likely simply be confused and bewildered, and then everything will depend on the specific circumstances around.

I will mention some advices on the topic that could help in this situation (and then discuss how someone could recognize a scam there):

— never call the phone number provided or contact via the specified email without additional verification. If a service is mentioned, then find the official website and look at their phone numbers there. and contact them through this channel, find out details about the "incident" received.

— feel the context of what happened. how and when something similar was obtained is quite important. If you still decide to call or already have a conversation with someone who claims you have some problems, never give the remote access to your system or any financial things, or personal information. They contacted you, they, not you. If you yourself were looking for any type of support, then you should try to find the most reliable and official channels / resources.

If they report serious problems, then with the same success - they will be able to call you back later (while you ask for advice from your friends), or you can call the affected service yourself. It’s hard to imagine them (not-scammers) demanding an immediate response when contacted out of the blue; without the opportunity for you to verify the veracity of intentions.

This notification contains very tense colors and the text escalates the situation. Then a more relaxed manner of solving the problem with more welcoming colors for the phone number. And then, in case vigilance began to manifest itself, a little more imaginary criticality of the situation is added.

Taking into account the context or content of such a notification - sometimes - it will be immediately clear that this is a scam. For example, you don't use credit cards or don't use Microsoft solutions. And so on. Such as, it does not (cannot) have any relation to you.

However, if there are any reasons that it may seem applicable to you, must always think from a position of common sense. Then check to see if everything is grammatically and punctually correct. Then, when you calmed down a little, think how real the things described are.

This screenshot shows 'buggy' phone number 1234567 (in my opinion). To me this sounds like a bogus about detected viruses and so on details; so they cannot be "automatically" cleaned/removed and require someone's help (via phone call) - although such details about impact were successfully detected in my "system" and even found a way to report it to me. At the same time, there are no details of the threats, nor is it obvious who is notifying me.

Whereas Microsoft constantly and often tries to alert everyone that they don't list phone numbers in their "alerts" and don't contact you by phone for support without asking. And also the prevalence of such a scheme - I would immediately remember them. But this only applies to this specific example.

There is too much ambiguity in such a notice that in any case it would require advice (if you don't know for sure) from someone else. And if you talked to someone, it would be much easier to make the right verdict.

Thanks!

Firmy

Hello @martink

To clarify the email you received from us, you can refer to this link: https://kb.f-secure.com/s/article/Why-did-I-receive-an-email-notification-about-new-device-login-to-My-F-Secure-account?language=en_US

As an added security measure, it will notify you every time you log in to the account. You may ignore the email if you have already logged in; however, if you did not and receive the email, we suggest you change your password.

Thank you.

Firmy

Thank you to all who took part in this challenge.

The winner will receive a notification through a private message, and badges have already been added to your profiles.

Although this round has ended, keep an eye on our community page for the next challenge. We can't wait to see you again.